Former Wayne County IT manager accused in $80K bribes case says he thought money was loans

Feb. 11, 2013

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Zayd Allebban / Photo courtesy U.S. Marshals

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A former Wayne County IT manager accused trying to cover up bribes didn’t know they were bribes, his lawyer argued today.
Zayd Allebban, 34, of Dearborn considered more than $80,000 paid to his boss — former county chief information officer Tahir Kazmi — to be loans, said Allebban’s lawyer, Haythem Faraj.

When Allebban and Kazmi met with Philip Shisha, the contractor who paid the bribes, Kazmi never used the word bribes.

“He represented to you that it was a loan and not a gift and you don’t correct him,” Faraj said to Shisha.

“No, I didn’t,” Shisha said.

But Shisha went on to say that at other points in the conversations, he made clear he had not been repaid. The conversations were recorded by the FBI, which wired Shisha with a recording device before the meetings.

Jurors saw a transcript in which Allebban says at one point: “If you guys did something illegal, I wouldn’t be here then. I wouldn’t be helping.”

Shisha’s testimony came in the fourth day of trial for Allebban, who is charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy. Prosecutors contend Allebban worked with Kazmi to create bogus receipts showing Kazmi had repaid anything he owed in an effort to thwart a federal probe.

Kazmi pleaded guilty to accepting the bribes and faces between 57 and 71 months in prison, according to sentencing guidelines. He is cooperating with investigators in exchange for a more lenient sentence.

Faraj insists his client was misled about the nature of the payments and was merely trying to help the two document them. The case against Allebban stems mostly from five conversations Shisha recorded at the request of the FBI, though one conversation was lost to technical difficulties.

FBI special agent Robert Beeckman wired up Shisha for his first meeting with Allebban, but Beeckman was in such a hurry to leave Shisha’s office that he pushed the wrong button on the recorder.

“I goofed it up,” Beeckman testified, adding he passed Allebban at the elevator door on his way out.